Obects Of Desire

October 5th, 2011

PDN has just announced the winners of their Objects of Desire photography contest. Their newest competition set out to highlight the best professional photographs of, you guessed it, desired objects. Our very own director of photography, Sean Stone, got in on the judging action along with Kelly Penford, director of the photography division at Jed Root Inc, and Jason Hall, art buyer at Fallon Worldwide. Together, the three chose the top object shots including photos of “cherished items and individuals.” We’re pleased to announce three Wonderful Machine winners, who were, coincidentally, all chosen winners in the Food and Still Life category:

First Place: Steve Buchanan/Baltimore
This is an image I use for self-promotion and as a portfolio piece.

Lauryn Ishak/Singapore
This is a photograph of Nyonya Platter served at the Bon Ton Resort in Malaysia. The platter is a combination of Malay and Chinese cuisines: Prawns, fish tamarind, beef with peanuts, chicken with lime leaf, pickled lamb curry, lady’s finger sambar, pineapple, eggplant in coconut curry and mango and cashew nut rice are all served on a banana leaf.

Lincoln Barbour/Portland
At Fuller’s Restaurant in Portland, Oregon, four strips of bacon sizzle on the flat top grill. This image was shot for a Portland Monthly feature on the best breakfast in Portland and art directed by Michael Novak.

Congratulations to all the winners!

- Maria

Communication Arts Photography Annual 2011

July 11th, 2011

I’m excited to announce that this year Wonderful Machine has nine photographers listed among the winners of the Communication Arts Photography Annual. Even more noteworthy than our numerous winners, is the fact that our very own Mark Katzman snagged this year’s cover—a huge honor. Congratulations to all the winners!

Advertising

Bryan Traylor//South Africa
Art Director: Ntobeko Ximba
Creative Director: Clinton Bridgeford
Ad Agency: Y&R Cape Town
Client: Land Rover

Tom Cwenar//Pittsburgh
Art Director/Creative Director: Dave Vissat
Executive Creative Director: Jay Giesen
Retoucher: Dwight Pritchett
Stylist: Alastair Heseltine
Ad Agency: Brunner
Client: MTD Products

Cover Image
Mark Katzman//St Louis
Art Director: Tony Bonilla
Producer: Yvonne Ortiz
Ad Agency: HY Connect
Client: Advocate Health Care

Tibor Nemeth//Charlotte
Associate Creative Director: Michael Hrizuk
Creative Director: Andrew Heckel
Photo Editor Jenny Lim
Producer: Cynthia McIntyre
Agency: Discovery Communications
Client: Discovery Channel

Editorial

Melissa Valladeres//Los Angeles
Photo Editor: Lisa Thackaberry
Client: Angeleno

For Sale

Jon Love//Australia
Stock

Institutional

Lynton Crabb//Australia
Art Director: Lisa Bigalow
Client: Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Multimedia

Austin Walsh//Kansas City
Writer: Tom Demetriou
Creative Director: Glendon Scott
Editor: Dustin Schirer
Colorist: Curtis Schmidt
Producer: Katy Hagan
Music Composer: Patrick Meagher
Production Company: Tight Salad
Client: Canon USA/Photoshelter
“Whispering Danny”

Unpublished

Robert Houser//San Francisco
Self Reflection.

Here’s hoping for ever more Wonderful Machine winners next year!

- Maria

2011 PDN Photo Annual Winners

May 19th, 2011

I’m pleased to announce that nine Wonderful Machine photographers were selected for this year’s PDN Photo Annual. I recently blogged about attending the photo annual party, where we were able to chat with some of the winners. Here’s an overview of all the Wonderful Machine picks and a little about the selected images:

Advertising: Gary Copeland/Los Angeles

This photo came from an insane night of shooting in a hotel room in Hollywood for Volcom Brand Jeans 2010 campaign.

Magazine/Editorial: Lauryn Ishak/Singapore

Typically when traveling around Mount Bromo, travelers tend to focus on seeing the obvious – Mount Bromo and the caldera from a viewpoint at sunrise and riding a horse to the summit of Mount Bromo itself. But beyond the obvious, Mount Bromo offers so much more natural beauty. Behind the Sand Sea, a drive in a jeep takes you further into a different landscape filled with lush green fields, wild flowers – a scene taken straight out of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. At different times of the year, the scene would look different, sometimes filled with red wild flowers or completely devoid of grass.

Corporate Design/Photo Products: Tim Kemple/Salt Lake City

The image series I submitted was from our winter shoot with Eastern Mountain Sports — images that appeared in stores, on the web and in catalogs over the winter. Staying true to the idea that you should have authentic adventures on shoots — we shot all around the White Mountains. The featured image is from one of the coldest days I have ever shot in my life. Howling winds and single digit temps kept more decent people inside, but we bundled up and got some great shots.

Corporate Design/Photo Products: Matthew Plexman/Canada

Canadian hotelier Groupe Germain commissioned me to create sports-themed works of art for it’s new Maple Leaf Square location in Toronto. Wonderful Machine gets the assist for helping us put together our most complex estimate to date. In the end, my muscular studies of six different professional athletes were printed 4′ x 8′ for each of the 167 guest rooms.  Toronto Raptor Sonny Weems’ star quality and grace made this shot a personal favorite.

Personal: Jesse Rieser/Los Angeles

This photo comes from Jesse’s Christmas in America personal project which was initially inspired by the absurdity of a 40-foot inflatable Santa who appeared to be guarding a tree lot. The essay is an unvarnished examination of the ways people mark the holiday’s meaning.

Personal: Scanderbeg Sauer/Switzerland

This winning shot was actually featured on the Cog earlier last November and comes from their Decommissioned series.  The project features abandoned airplanes — “aircraft that, in the last stage of their lives, have become precious and coveted spare parts stores.”

Stock: Thomas Barwick/Seattle

We were in Hawaii for a client and had organized for extra time to produce stock. We’d been introduced to a great teen from a casting trip a few weeks prior.  She wasn’t the right age group for the client so we got her to help us find a few friends to do a “teen friends” stock shoot. The idea was to keep the shoot fairly loose, fun and natural, show their friendship and interaction. The one thing that I had (foolishly) visualized in my head was decent weather. When we arrived the trade winds were blowing very hard and that was pushing weather over the mountains. We basically got blown off the first location and moved a few miles up the beach. By the time were finished I wasn’t really sure we had gotten much out of the session because it wasn’t what we had been expecting, but we went with what was there and they are some of my favorite images from last year.

Stock: Tamar Levine/Los Angeles

I did this shoot as a personal project, and ended up submitting it to Gallery Stock—who chose the series to put on their website. I wanted to depict the lonely side of having a baby and being a housewife—being stuck in the house while the husband is at work. I thought it would enhance the concept if it took place in the late 60′s/early 70′s since there weren’t as many working moms. I also thought it would enhance the concept if it was shot a bit voyeuristically—with zoom lenses, through screens, etc, like someone is spying on this woman.

Web Sites: Mark Katzman/St Louis

Six months of research helped me identify the features and design elements I wanted in a site.  Primarily I wanted it to be fast, clean, sophisticated – seamless – but also wanted it to be utilitarian and have depth.  I wanted potential clients who liked what they saw to be able to learn as much as they wanted about my work. I also wanted it to be distinctive. Ultimately I was lucky and found Mike Hartley and Big Flannel. His design style was very much in line with my tastes and sentiments.  We worked together for another few months designing and redesigning, it was very collaborative – he is incredible to work with, very open minded and opinionated at the same time. The result was the site.

Congratulations to all the winners!

-Maria